As top Obama Administration officials presented their arguments for a $3.7 billion plan to deal with a surge of kids coming over the border into the United States, there was evidence both of tough sledding ahead for the White House and maybe also the seeds of a deal to approve such an emergency plan.
"Doing nothing is not an option," argued Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who acknowledged that one important signal to send to people in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala is the return of people who had made it across the border into Texas.
"People in Central America need to see illegal migrants coming back," Johnson told the Senate Appropriations Committee, noting that he had seen one such flight earlier this week while he was in Guatemala for talks.
But while that might sound good to lawmakers, there was concern in both parties that the President's plan wouldn't get many of those kids through immigration hearings and onto planes out of the country any time soon.
"How many additional kids will this allow you to process?" asked Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) about the President's border plan.
"I don't have an answer for that, Senator," said a Department of Justice official.
"You have a backlog of 375,000 kids," said Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), who joined in noting that the feds weren't getting rid of that backlog before this latest immigration surge.
"The average to deal with them right now is from three to five years," Landrieu added, telling officials for a second straight day that she has a lot of questions about the Obama immigration plan.
The hearing showed that Democrats were not of one mind on the matter - some expressed opposition to the wholesale deportation of the children, while others demanded that the feds include money to help deal with the detention of kids at federal facilities in their states.
"I don't believe local communities should bear the cost of the crisis at the border," complained Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM), who told officials how the feds had suddenly set up a holding facility for border kids in Artesia, New Mexico, without consulting any local officials.
The route to a deal?
Despite a lot of grumbling, it wasn't hard to envision some kind of compromise in coming weeks that could provide money to deal with the surge of kids, but it seemed likely that it would have to include changes to a 2008 law that blocked the quick return of children to their home countries.
Currently, that is only allowed for minors from Mexico and Canada, not 'non-contiguous' countries from Central America.
The top two Democrats in the Congress, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) made clear they could accept a plan to change the law dealing with minors.
"It's not a deal-breaker," Pelosi told reporters at her weekly news conference.
But there were still a lot of Democrats and pro-immigrant groups who want no part of such a plan.
Meanwhile, the Homeland Security Secretary tried to increase the pressure on lawmakers to act by saying that without extra funding, the Border Patrol would run out of money in September, while the immigration enforcement would be tapped out in mid-August.
Republicans clearly weren't in any mood to be rolled by the President on the issue, convinced that the surge of kids was a result of the President's immigration policies, arguing they acted like a magnet for these kids.
"He's been President for five years," said Speaker John Boehner, his voice rising with a sense of frustration and exasperation.
http://youtu.be/2BtT2JDSGeE
"When is he going to take responsibility for something?" Boehner thundered to reporters.
Still, Boehner said he anticipated there would be a vote on some kind of border funding plan this month, as Republicans in both chambers tried to rally behind their own ideas on border security.
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